It’s been almost a year to the day since we last wrote about Pin Oak Energy, a relatively young Marcellus/Utica driller based in Akron, OH (see Pin Oak Energy NOT Actively Leasing in Northern Utica Shale). Pin Oak is back in the news, having just closed on a deal to buy producing Marcellus and conventional wells in Elk County, PA.
Read More “Pin Oak Energy Buys Marcellus & Conventional Wells in Elk County”
On the morning of October 27, Marc Jones, an employee of Deep Well Services, was working at a Shell well pad in Tioga County, PA when “a large piece of equipment fell on him, pinning him to the platform 65 feet in the air where he was standing” (see Accident Kills Rig Worker on Shell Well Pad in Tioga County, PA). The blunt force trauma, hitting him in the head, killed him.
Read More “Family of Worker Killed at Tioga County, PA Well Pad Sues Shell”
We’ve been tracking the story of a coming $800 million LNG export plant that will be built in rural northeastern Pennsylvania (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). We recently shared the news that some of the Marcellus molecules from the plant will go to Puerto Rico (see Wyalusing, PA LNG Export Plant Making Progress). We now know where and for what purpose.
Read More “PA Marcellus Gas to Power Electric Plant in…Puerto Rico?!”
In 1990 a landowner freely sold (rather than have taken by eminent domain) land in Lawrence County to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for a new highway project. In 2012 the landowner filed a lawsuit claiming when selling the land, she did not sell the mineral rights. She wants to lease under the property for shale drilling. Yesterday Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania denied her request.
Read More “Do PA Landowners Retain Mineral Rights When Selling Land to State?”
Yesterday the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for Oct-Dec 2018 (full copy below). It shows natgas production rose an amazing 17.7% compared to the same period last year–to a new all-time high. For the calendar year, total production was up 14.2% from the prior year, the largest year-over-year increase in production since 2014.
Read More “IFO: PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 4Q18”
RINO Tom Hogan, District Attorney for Chester County, PA, launched a criminal probe into the Mariner East Pipeline projects (1 and 2) last December (see Chester County DA Goes Rogue, Targets ME2 Pipe w/Criminal Probe). The probe smacks not of justice but of politics–as in Hogan seeking higher office.
Read More “Politically Motivated Investigation of ME Pipe Convenes Grand Jury”
PTT Global Chemical has made and broken so many promises about the timing of a decision to build a $6 (lately cited as $10) billion ethane cracker in Belmont County, we’ve lost track of the number broken deadlines. Don’t get us wrong. We still hope and believe the project will happen, but we’ve grown weary of the delays in an announcement. And we don’t even live in the region!
Read More “Still No Ohio Cracker Announcement, Preparations Continue”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Weinberg Food Bank and natural gas industry make community health a priority; Ohio gas company fined $400k for gas line rupture that caused home fire; New York AG fights Exxon allegations of misconduct in climate probe; 3rd Circ. reverses fraud conviction under Speedy Trial Act; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: An off ramp for natural gas would benefit pipeline communities; NATIONAL: Green New Deal: Not About Energy (video); Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG gets DOE permit; Select Energy sees growth in shale water sector; Pipelines vulnerable under TSA’s watch; Federally-funded NPR joins the Green New Deal chorus, citing a flawed climate disaster study; Forecasting the oil price for fun and profit (but not accuracy); How will producers respond to the coming natural gas glut?; INTERNATIONAL: Canada’s second largest natural gas producer uses digitization to streamline; Mexico will depend on U.S. natural gas despite energy sovereignty push.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 6, 2019”
Even though Rice Midstream doesn’t exist anymore, it can still be fined. Rice Midstream became part of EQT when EQT bought out and merged in Rice Energy in 2017. Last year EQT, under pressure from investors, split itself in two–into EQT (the driller) and Equitrans (nee EQT Midstream, the pipeline company). What was Rice Midstream is now part of Equitrans. Yesterday the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) levied a $1.5 million fine on Rice for work done in late 2017/early-to-mid 2018.
Read More “PA DEP Clips Rice Midstream $1.5M for Pipe Problems in SWPA”
Gloom, despair and agony on me. That’s how we would describe the reaction of fossil fuel haters who thought they had successfully bullied Virginia’s Water Control Board members into revoking a permit earlier granted to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. But last week the Board voted to NOT revoke the previously issued permit. That sent the antis into despair…and into a rage.
Read More “Va. Water Control Board Shocks Antis re Vote on MVP Water Permit”
We thought the tree sitting weirdos trying to block construction of Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia had long returned to earth. The last of the sitters, at least in Franklin County, VA, came down last May (see Last MVP Tree Sitter in Franklin Co. Comes Down, Trees Cut). What we didn’t know is that there are at least two other sitters in Montgomery County, VA–one of whom has been up a tree for more than five months.
Read More “Still a Few “Tree Sitters” Left Blocking Section of MVP in Va.”
Williams recently issued its 2018 and 4Q18 update. High on the list of kudos handed out by CEO Alan Armstrong was the Atlantic Sunrise Project, a $3 billion expansion of the Transco Pipeline in 10 northeastern Pennsylvania counties to carry Marcellus gas south, and Williams’ northeast gathering and processing (G&P) pipeline system.
Read More “Williams Ends 2018 on Atlantic Sunrise High Note”
In January 2017, TransCanada’s Columbia Pipeline subsidiary launched an open season for the Buckeye XPress (BXP) pipeline project (see Columbia Pipeline Launches Open Season for New M-U Project). BXP will expand service along the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline from Ohio (and PA and WV) to send even more Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf via the interconnection at Leach, Kentucky.
Read More “OH/WV Buckeye XPress Pipe Project Moves to Front of FERC Queue”
We spotted an interesting announcement from NGL Energy Partners that the company has just closed on the purchase of seven natural gas liquids terminals in the Eastern United States, purchased from DCP Midstream for an undisclosed amount. What’s interesting is that some of the terminals, most of them located in the Marcellus/Utica region, are capable of exports. NGL Energy says they plan to export butane from one of them. Might that be M-U butane?
Read More “NGL Energy Buys Northeast Propane Terminals from DCP Midstream”
Water is expensive. Marcellus/Utica producers are spending millions of dollars on solutions to better handle water–the water they need for drilling and (perhaps more importantly) the produced water they must treat and/or dispose of. At the end of March, a group of M-U producers, regulators and other experts will gather in Pittsburgh to share their secrets to lowering the cost of water management. Should you be there too?
Read More “The Secret to Lowering Water Management Costs in the M-U”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Denbury and Penn Virginia announce filing of definitive proxy materials; Epsilon announces voluntary delisting from TSX; DCNR Secretary continues to resist more drilling under (not on) PA state land; Methane migration, water chemistry changes are focus of shale gas webinar; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere takes over Corpus Christi LNG Train 1 control; NATIONAL: Hickenlooper up the middle; Green New Deal: Impossible (video); Chesapeake Energy Corporation: The thesis is playing out; U.S., China close in on trade deal; Senate bill to speed up LNG applications; INTERNATIONAL: Nuclear reactor restarts in Japan displacing LNG imports in 2019; Germany plans to directly regulate Russia-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 5, 2019”